Functions of the Brain

Amygdala: fight or flight, process emotions (fear)

Brainstem: connects the spine to brain, regulates heart rate, breathing and more

Broca’s Area: production of speech 

Cerebellum: Coordination of muscle movement, balance

Corpus Callosum: connects the two hemispheres, carries messages between them

Frontal Lobe: higher-order thinking, linguistic processing/thinking

Hippocampus: transitions short term to long term memory

Hypothalamus: maintains homeostasis, emotion, four F’s (flight, fight, sex, feeding)

Medulla: controls heartbeat and breathing

Motor Cortex: controls voluntary movements, muscle contractions

Occipital Lobe: Visual information processing

Parietal Lobe: processing and organizing information, math and spatial thinking

Pituitary Gland: Produces growth hormone, and regulates release of hormones in body  

Pons: coordinates facial movements, sensations, and sleep

Reticular Formation: controls multitasking, arousal and wakefulness, learning

Sensory Cortex: processing and interpreting body touch and movement sensations

Temporal Lobe: Auditory processing, language processing (memory storage)

Thalamus: “relay station”, takes in sensory information (not smell) and relays to the correct brain area

Wernicke’s Area: understanding and comprehension of speech & writing

Basal Ganglia: motivation and reward, muscle movement